Quick Question About Cycling Process...

When should i expect an algae bloom? i'm coming up on 4 weeks old on saturday, my tank is nearing the end of the cycling proccess, diatoms is going away, but still no alage bloom. When should i get a lot of alage, it sounds like a lot of new tanks get them but i have yet to get any alage except coralline, so i want to be somewhat prepared for when i get it.

 

Your tank may not produce a algae bloom if you have your lighting setup right. An algae bloom takes an abundance of nitrates in the water to feed the algae that will multiply to create a bloom. If you have hi nitrates and little light, the algae won't have the means to multiply. Disclaimer: there are still a few other factors that could contribute to an algae bloom. Keep your levels in check and test frequently.

 

Puffer chick

they are not 100% garuanteed to arrive
water quality, lighting, algae spores, nutrient availability are all variable

last set up I did 2 years back , nothing but green micro algae . and occasional patch of red cyno

I ran GFO (Phosphate remover) within 12 weeks of setting up the tank as a preventitive measure

bear in mind the algae uses one or more of the nutrients your bacteria does
this is another good reason that slower is better when setting up a new tank
give the bacteria a chance to deal with the additional wastes and not allowing an excess of new nutrients to encourage any algae spores you have in there to proliferate

this is one reason many people run tanks dark for up to 12 weeks while cycling
nutrients being available coupled with light, in the presence of algae spores = algae.

I hope you dont have to go through them

Steve

 

I had both algae and a cyno bacteria bloom. I had read/heard that an extended photo period helped that along. I just wanted to view the tank and was running 12 hrs of lights.

Anyway I did not really get it until a week or 2 after the cycle. It also has to do with what you add, and if you are feeding. The extra nutrients can aide in causing the bloom-as I understand

 

thanks guys i'm really hoping i dont get bad algae in this tank, i've been running the tank dark all this time, and only turning on the lights for photo taking and stuff like that. And nitrates are very close to 0 so they are not high anymore like they had been a few weeks ago. So i guess i will just keep my fingers cross that i will not get a bad algae bloom

 

lights are on for maybe 30 minutes at most, and not even every day. And i'm not feeding anything

 

You still need to keep the nitrogen cycle going, so you'll need something that makes ammonia. What's in the tank that poops?

 

nothing, unless there are some hitchhikers that i have yet to notice, but the only thing that i've added to my tank is a raw piece of shrimp